Surprise checks on sex offenders found 20 in violation

Sheriff’s Office creates new position to beef up enforcement

ZEN T.C. ZHENG, Houston Chronicle

Published 6:30 am, Friday, March 6, 2009

Three of the about 200 sex offenders registered in Fort Bend County’s unincorporated area are still unaccounted for after Sheriff’s deputies spent four evenings in mid-February checking on each of them at home.

“We’ve done random checks before. But this was the first time we knocked on everyone’s door,” Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Craig Brady said March 6.

He said investigators are looking for the three people whose absence from their registered residences violated a state law.

The three are among 20 sex offenders found to be out of compliance with the law on sex offender registration. Aside from the three not living at the registered addresses, most of the remaining violators had failed to change the information on either vehicle registration or their employment.

“The most egregious violation we found was that one individual actually had small children residing in the home and not documented as being there, which is a serious violation,” Brady said.

That man lives in Fresno with his daughter and her two young daughters, investigators said.

No arrest has been made following the sweeping, door-to-door visits. But Brady said some of the violators could be referred to the District Attorney’s office for prosecution.

Deputies plan to make another round of surprise visits to registered sex offenders’ homes in a few months, Brady said, adding that such unannounced visits will take place at least twice a year.

Brady said the roughly 200 registered sex offenders are scattered across the county’s unincorporated areas under Sheriff’s Office’s supervision.

“Most of them are trying to comply, and 10 percent (in violation) is actually fairly small,” Brady said.

With the county’s growing population, Brady said the number of sex offenders also has been swelling.

“But I don’t think it’s a significant increase,” Brady said.

Brady said the unannounced checks on registered sex offenders were “not just nitpicking” on them.

“They might sound like minor infractions not changing vehicle registration or types of vehicles they drive or place of employment,” Brady said. “But if you’ve got one whose place of employment was a machine shop and it is found out he works in a day care facility, that’s a pretty big, significant change.

“You need to know who these people’s neighbors are, and you need to know what they are driving. If you have a child abduction and sexual assault in a given location, and you have a registered sex offender on that street, you’re gonna go look there.”

Using a three-year state grant -- $65,000 annually -- the Sheriff’s Office has created a new position for detective Shelly Nicodemus, who is responsible for tracking and monitoring registered sex offenders and determining if a violation has occurred. Nicodemus had been registering sex offenders in her previous civilian job.

“Now she deals with the enforcement aspect of it and can make arrests,” Brady said.